The present invention relates to an apparatus for the thermal treatment of substrates, and includes a reaction chamber, at least one elongated heat source, and at least one reflection wall having at least one rib for reflecting at least a portion of the radiation given off by the heat source.
An apparatus of this type is known, for example, from JP 5-190558 A. The reflection walls have grooves that extend parallel to the heating lamps and in which the heating lamps are at least partially disposed and which form the at least one rib. With this type of reflection wall, a reflected radiation results that is parallel to the lamps. Such devices with contours in a reflection wall that extend parallel to the heating lamps are furthermore known from JP 61-125021 A, as well as JP 60-193343 A.
An apparatus for the thermal treatment of substrates is disclosed in the not prepublished DE 197 37 802 that belongs to the applicant of the present application. With this apparatus, a reaction chamber of quartz glass is disposed within a second, larger chamber having reflection walls. Disposed above and below the reaction chamber are heating sources in the form of rod lamps in order to heat up a substrate, especially a semiconductor wafer, that is disposed in the reaction chamber. The reflection walls of the apparatus are flat, so that again a reflected radiation parallel to the lamps results. Due to this parallel reflection at the reflection wall there results within the reaction chamber a certain, periodic intensity distribution of the incident light for heating the substrate. In so doing, parts of the substrate can be heated more than other parts, which, however, is a drawback since the substrate must be heated as uniformly as possible.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an apparatus for the thermal treatment of substrates of the aforementioned general type, according to which a uniform heating of the substrates is possible.